4 mile final and the Johnson Bar comes apart

[steingar]

Awesome job Ned.  I had a somewhat similar problem at one point, the J-bar wouldn't engage with the uplock.  I was landing a nearby strip for fuel, and couldn't get the gear locked down.  I finally flew away from the (busy) field, got some altitude, hit the autopilot, unlatched my seatbelt and gave the locking mechanism the biggest uummph my hairy fat little future corpse could manage.  Did the trick, got the gear locked down.  Flew back home Skyhawk style.

[yvesg]

18 hours ago, Ned Gravel said:

Well..  There was that too.  ATP in the left seat and you in the back seat.  Such a joy!!!  But I am not certain if you understand how grateful I am for the offer to do that for me.  I am.  Very.

Kidding aside, I was watching him (not to be named here without his permission) do exactly what I would do all through the flight home.  You ever notice how an instrument rated pilot lowers their eyes to the panel just before entering clouds?  We both did it at the same time and I wasn't doing any of the flying.  Requesting diversions around buildup to avoid growing CU. exactly as I would do as well.  We have all learned many of the same lessons.  

And I got home 7 days sooner than I originally anticipated.  I am probably going to ask @yvesg to fly us both to Waterloo when we pick it up.  We have not done a whole pile of formation work this year.  So this might be a good opportunity for the trip home.  Videos will follow.

In the meantime, can you get pictures of the parts for MS when you figure out what happened?

Ned, sorry about your ordeal and good job landing SWR safely. No problem taking you to Waterloo when possible. I have Casey on my schedule (labor day week-end) and there is possibility I get another pilot checked on my machine in the next few weeks.

 

Yves

[kris_adams]

On 8/23/2020 at 12:58 PM, Ned Gravel said:

To top it all off, Clarence and his friend flew me back to Ottawa in a Turbonormalized Twink.  1:24 at 18 gph.

Congrats on figuring it out and keeping the Mooney off its belly!  Twin turbo commanche...the holy grail of twins for most of my missions.

[Ned Gravel]

I have to admit that the go-round option was a possibility, and I thought about it for about a half second and discarded it.  I considered that this was really only going to end one of two ways and a go-round would not change either of those two possibilities - both of which were entirely acceptable.  If it was going to be much more work than simply banging the handle back onto the retraction lever (the only way I could ensure gear down) then a go round was not going to allow me to improve on that.  I was at 1000' AGL and a long ways away (about 2 and half minutes of flying although I did not do that calculation at the time) and I "knew" I had the time to either attempt a successful solution or abandon the attempt altogether and put her down on her belly, all within the time of the approach.

I cannot argue against a go-round.  I am certainly always ready for such on approaches until I can commit to the landing.  But at the time, both of the available outcomes were acceptable to me and the third had been discounted.  The absolute advantage to a go-round is to take the deep breath and then take longer preps for possible outcomes.  I have to agree with that.  When the handle was forced back on and the whole thing locked into the downlock block, I had the time to consider what would have followed if I had not been able to jury rig my solution.  That was when the idea of a go-round really came home.  In this visual approach, everything was happening in slow time and I had a good safety net.  In an instrument approach, there would have been none of that. 

Had this occurred in IMC, I would have immediately executed a missed approach. Climb to 4000' on runway heading and expect vectors - lotsa time to talk with someone and figure something out. Can't follow the needles, control pitch, trim and airspeed and then bang on the handle at the same time during an instrument approach.  I can read the "loss of concentration" words in the TSB findings now.

So, yes.  Go-round in IMC mandatory.  And if my visual approach had been jiggered at all by the shenanigans in the cockpit - also mandatory.  As it was, I succeeded in ending the potential problem with 700 feet left to descend.  

But this is a good discussion about "what ifs" anyway.  Part of a good after-action report.  

[ryoder]

Cool story. I think I would have cancelled the approach and gone VFR, climbed and worked the issue as someone else said. Too much pressure to fix a mechanical issue while on final approach. 

[rbridges]

It happened to me, also. Reminded me of the can of exploding snakes. I just grabbed the handle and put it on top of the bar and locked it. Annual with Joey cole was really close so I had him repair it. Besides surprising me it was no biggie. Maybe I didn't have enough time to think of the bad stuff that could happen. 

[Ned Gravel]

After Action Report Conclusion.

Turns out the locknut had worked loose from the threaded rod in the handle of the retraction bar and nothing was holding the handle in place.

When the folks in the shop looked at it, they told me they had replaced the locknut with a new one.  I immediately went into "belt and braces" mode.  There is now a second nut on that threaded rod to lock the two of them together. 

Now I feel better.  

[gsxrpilot]

On 8/24/2020 at 4:10 PM, Ned Gravel said:

I have to admit that the go-round option was a possibility, and I thought about it for about a half second and discarded it.  I considered that this was really only going to end one of two ways and a go-round would not change either of those two possibilities - both of which were entirely acceptable.  If it was going to be much more work than simply banging the handle back onto the retraction lever (the only way I could ensure gear down) then a go round was not going to allow me to improve on that.  I was at 1000' AGL and a long ways away (about 2 and half minutes of flying although I did not do that calculation at the time) and I "knew" I had the time to either attempt a successful solution or abandon the attempt altogether and put her down on her belly, all within the time of the approach.

An example of a good pilot who is always way ahead of his airplane. 

[jamesm]

So then is the all thread (or whatever you want to call it) keeping the tension on the spring inside the handle ?

 

Thanks for the update Ned great info.

 

James '67C

 

 

[Ned Gravel]

On 9/9/2020 at 4:51 PM, jamesm said:

So then is the all thread (or whatever you want to call it) keeping the tension on the spring inside the handle ?

Thanks for the update Ned great info.

James '67C

Yup.  Threaded rod is attached to the inside of the top handle and the nut at the bottom is attached to the rest of the retraction bar and keeps the handle from being ejected by the spring.  It takes work to put the locknut on and takes more work to put a second nut on tight to the first.  But better that work than having it explode in your hand after 15 years of use and abuse from a ham-fisted "love-my-Johnson-bar" pilot.  

Clarence tells me that I bent the rod when I shoved it back onto the bar - but he was able to straighten it out.  Ah........

[skydvrboy]

Thanks for the heads up Ned. I'll check this out and add the second nut at my next annual. 

[RCBass]

On 8/24/2020 at 7:29 AM, hypertech said:

Nice work.  Don't forget option 3 - abort the approach to land, climb to a safe altitude, engage the autopilot for slow, level flight, and work the issue with two hands.

I thought the same thing, but that wouldn't have made for nearly as exciting a story. Much better wheels coming down at 700' on final approach.

[carusoam]

Welcome aboard RCB!

Best regards,

-a-